July 27, 1940
Lonnie E. Smith, a black dentist and civil-rights activist, attempted to vote in the Democratic primary in his Harris County precinct in Houston. As an African American, he was denied a ballot under the white primary rules of the time; the US Supreme Court had ruled in 1935 that the Democratic Party was a private organization and could set its own rules. Smith, with the assistance of attorneys supplied by the NAACP (including the future US Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall), filed suit in the US District Court, petitioning for redress for the denial of his rights under the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Seventeenth amendments. Following an unfavorable ruling in the district court, Smith’s attorneys lodged appeals that ultimately reached the Supreme Court. On April 3, 1944, the court’s decision in Smith v. Allwright reversed the prior decisions against Smith by a margin of eight to one. Since that time, all eligible Texans have had the right to vote in the primary election of their choice.
